Category Archives: cancer

feeling very spoiled!

14 Tuesday Apr 2009

Posted by in cancer, chemo, friends, home, hope

≈ 12 Comments

spoiled

So I was just sitting here with Susan (Pip) having a nice lunch and talking over our future plans (and making lists!) when Nog came in with today’s post … and a wee package for me!  I read the adorable postcard first that said “Something to protect your little tootsies from the nasty cold floor” … and saw it was from Linda (aka Beatrice). Oh! And I said to Susan that I was sure I’d seen these little slipper sock thingys before and she said – “yep, at Marks & Spencer in Gibraltar”. Ha!

Almost made me cry. Just, you know, the thoughtfulness that someone remembered how the cold floors hurt my bare feet when I first came back from the chemo infusion, and then popped these  in the post for me. And they’ve also got the eensy rubber pads on the bottom so I won’t slip around. Well, be assured that I’ll be wearing them a week Thursday, Linda. And thank you so much!

ps. Just finishing the Heal Your Own Back book and will be starting on Stephen Fry tonight.

just knew I was gonna love this place…

06 Monday Apr 2009

Posted by in cancer, chemo, food & drink, friends, neighbours, restaurants, sevilla, work

≈ 6 Comments

oca-spinach-pizza

When Susan took me out for lunch on Friday (the day after going back on chemo) we tried this recently opened pizzeria called L’Oca Giuliva, right across the street from my house. And I knew straight away that this was going to become the new takeaway pizza joint for casa az. Not that I actually order many takeaway pizzas – in fact, hardly any at all – but they are curiously very good “chemo comfort food”. Especially when, like yesterday evening, I’d just woken up from a four hour nap, was feeling peckish, but was still way too groggy to even make toast…

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no more chemo hand!

03 Friday Apr 2009

Posted by in cancer, chemo, food & drink, friends, gadgets, health & happiness, hospitals

≈ 12 Comments

chemo-arm

… well, after today’s session.

And wow, as I sit here with my throbbingly painful “chemo arm” and weak & useless achy “chemo hand”, I am convinced that getting the port is the right way to go. It is seriously going take away one of the worst side effects I get from my present chemo regimen (Xelox/Oxiplatin infusion; Xeloda chemo pills). And so,  if the new whack of anti-nausea pills also work, then I’ll only – ha! – have to put up with the cold thang (not being able to touch, eat or drink anything cold), and feeling really really tired for about ten days out of the three-week cycle. “Razor throat” and “metal mouth” are also quite unpleasant, but they usually only last for 5 and 10 days respectively, and they don’t stop me from doing stuff (just from doing them pleasantly) …

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chemo picnic

01 Wednesday Apr 2009

Posted by in cancer, chemo, food & drink, friends, hope

≈ 24 Comments

brown-bag-lunchPrepping for tomorrow’s chemo session.

Trust me, chemo is no picnic. But that doesn’t mean you can’t bring your own. The last time my friend Judy came with me for a chemo session it ended up lasting long past lunch time.  I hadn’t had any breakfast because I was feeling so nervous, but I wasn’t worried because on a previous visit I’d noticed sandwiches, yoghurts, fruit and drinks set out.  Well ha, on the occasion of which I speak both Judy and I were getting a little peckish around 3 o’clock and so she went off in search of the food trolley.  The only thing left on one of the trays was a mystery meat sandwich that neither of us could bring ourselves to eat. As a result, I left there (around 5pm) feeling very weak and wonky. Not eating on chemo day is a VERY BAD IDEA …

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